Grand Note: An Alternate Ending to Death Note
by American Vigor
Summary: Experience this alternate ... and intriguing ... ending to the Death Note series!


**~ Grand Note ~**

**An Alternate Ending to Death Note.**

– **A Death Note Fanfiction –**

_Disclaimer: Death Note, the glorious franchise it is, is not in any way a property I control. I can only wish to supplement its mystique with stories such as the one herein. The same is in regards to related characters, symbols, plot elements, etc._

_With that said, I hope you enjoy the story!_

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><p>"There was no other way to correct things! That was the purpose given to me!"<p>

Light was in the midst of a megalomaniacal rant, and he was speaking as if he had truly acted out of holiness when he had slain and murdered in the past six years.

They were in the warehouse where he'd agreed to meet Near, and Light had already exposed himself to be the self-declared god he believed himself to be.

"Only I can do it, … who else could have done it?" Light asked those who had gathered. "To come this far, would anyone else have been able to go on?"

Near was disgusted by what he was hearing, but those whom Light had deluded for so long by making them think that he was on their side, and that he was not, in fact, the monster whom they had been looking for, were even more disgusted.

"To create a new world, ... only I can do it," Light said solemnly, as he dropped his head in reverent reflection.

"No, you are just a murderer," Near said, causing Light to look toward him. "This notebook is the deadliest weapon in the history of mankind. You became enthralled with the Shinigami and the power of the notebook, and you're mistaken, to think that you are a god. You're nothing more than a crazy mass murderer, Light Yagami."

"I couldn't agree more," L said, as he suddenly appeared in the middle of the room, causing all within the warehouse to widen their eyes in shock.

There was a silence for many moments, and Light could hear his heart beating faster.

"Are you surprised to see me, Light?" L calmly asked, as if his presence meant nothing out of the ordinary.

Light began to wonder if he had truly gone mad, as if that hadn't happened already.

"You're dead!" Light screamed. "I killed you myself! This isn't happening! There's no way!"

"But I am here," L said, as he began to smile. "And even though you've been held captive by your delusions for many years, Light, I've come to set you free."

Light was spellbound, to say the least.

He hurriedly opened up the latch from his wristwatch, and took out a piece of paper that he had ripped out of his Death Note.

"No! You're dead! You're dead!" Light screamed as he wrote L's true name on the piece of paper.

L watched as Light's bewildered look became something more akin to a grin.

"That's right, L! I'm one step a head of you yet again!" Light yelled. "I found out your true name while researching Near's identity! You can't stop me!"

Some of those in the room would have been compelled to shoot Light had the conditions of the day been different, but everyone had been so perplexed by what was occurring that their current attentions were directed more toward L's presence than at Light's actions.

There was further silence as Light stared at his watch.

More than 40 seconds passed.

L was still there, standing calmly.

Light's eyes widened even more than they had before.

"Well Light, for reasons that should have been quite obvious to you, I believe you will now recognize that what you tried to do will no longer work on me," L said.

Light's nervous sweat began to intensify.

Teru Mikami's eyes remained fixed in uncertainty.

"What is happening, … god, what is happening?" Mikami asked.

Light didn't know how to verbally respond to the question.

He frantically began to write L's true name down repeatedly on whatever bits of paper from within the wristwatch were still available, and he kept on looking up to see if L was still there.

After a minute and 20 seconds, L still was.

Light ceased writing, then dropped the paper and pen he had been holding.

"Am I mistaken?" Light asked aloud. "Is this somehow a dream?"

"No Light, this is very real," L said. "The world has been less of a dream and more of a nightmare ever since you went on your horrid rampage of death. I'll show you that I am indeed here. How are you, Near?"

L turned to look at his former student, all the while crossing his arms.

Near didn't fully know what to say, as this, of all things, had been completely outside the realm of what he had expected at the start of the day.

"You really are here, aren't you, L?" Near asked. "You trained me to be a logical person, and I must admit, this defies everything that you, yourself, taught me."

"Is the fact that a Death Note can exist not illogical itself?" L asked.

"Your point is well taken," Near said.

L turned to look at Light.

"It's over, Kira," L said. "Even if you ever thought that you were doing good for this world, you never truly did. You killed others whose crimes did not warrant death, and especially for all the entirely innocent people you murdered just so they would not expose you, their deaths at your hands shall be avenged."

Light did not know how to respond, but he snarled with perplexed anger.

"Whatever you're doing, if you truly are actually here, L, you must be cheating," Light said. "I saw you die! I made sure you couldn't stop me! I buried you myself! I laughed at you, and I rightfully mocked you for failing to stop me! And you still can't stop me! No one can stop the path of a god!"

"While that may be true of some gods, Light, it is certainly not true of someone who isn't a god at all," L said.

"Don't mock me, you loser," Light said, as he attempted to retain an air of confidence. "I'll make sure I finish the job!"

"How, exactly?" L asked.

Light thought of something clever to say, but while he was usually masterful in the arts of speaking and in seeming convincing, he displayed neither of these traits at the moment.

He did notice, however, that L began to reach into his right pocket, and pulled out what appeared to be …

"A notebook?" Light asked.

It was gray, and a little smaller than a standard Death Note.

"It seems, Light, that Ryuk never told you about this notebook, did you, Ryuk?" L asked.

While most in the room could neither see nor hear the Shinigami, Ryuk responded.

"That ain't nothing," Ryuk said. "Death Notes don't always have a dark cover, but that's besides the point. If that was a Death Note, I'd be able to tell. You're just holding up a notebook and pretending to be scary."

L briefly glanced at the notebook in his right hand, then directed his gaze back toward Ryuk.

"It seems I was right to think that not all the Shinigami would necessarily know of this notebook," L said, causing Ryuk to be taken aback, which, to the Shinigami's credit, did not happen often.

"Now I'm curious," Ryuk said. "What exactly is that thing?"

L held the notebook a little higher, as if to emphasize its prominence.

"This is known as the Grand Note, and I would have used it years ago had I been aware of its existence more than a few months ago," L said. "After I found out about it, this notebook took me weeks to find. Yes, it seems I came into possession of this notebook at a rather opportune time, only hours ago, actually. "

"You just happened to acquire it in time for you to use it today, L? That's quite coincidental," Near said. "Improbable, actually."

"Improbability is not the same thing as impossibility," L said. "I'm not one to believe in 'fate,' per se, but who knows? Maybe it had a hand in the timing. I'm not sure. But nevertheless, it's time to get started."

L flipped open the notebook, causing Light to become even more unnerved out of his uncertainty as to what was about to transpire.

"The Grand Note, Kira, has many powers, but only four of them are truly important with regards to what will occur," L said, as he took out from the back of the notebook a gray pen that seemed as though it was an inclusion of the notebook, rather than something totally separate.

"What does it do?" Aizawa asked.

"The first power of this notebook that I will share with you is that anyone whose name I write down in a certain section of this notebook cannot be killed by a Death Note," L said, as he flipped open the Grand Note to a section toward its back, then held the pages open so Light could see the writing within. "I didn't want you to do anything brash, Light, and so before I arrived, I wrote down the names of everyone who is currently in this warehouse. Everyone except myself, of course."

Light contemplated the implications of what had happened.

"You mean … you didn't change your legal name?" Light asked.

"No, of course I didn't; even though that would have been a good idea under other circumstances," L said. "It's too bad, Kira, that you used your thought processes for such twisted ends, otherwise you truly might have been able to help the world. But I digress …."

L directed his gaze toward Mikami, who was earnestly watching as the god he had revered for so long was being defeated so profoundly by this enemy.

"I feel sorry for you, especially, as Kira preyed upon your misguided sentiments and tricked you into helping him," L said. "The same could be said even more so for Misa Amane. But this second power of the Grand Note will put that all to rest."

L turned his gaze back toward Light.

"Writing a person's name in the Grand Note can have many functions, Kira, and this second one is a special one," L said. "I'm going to prevent you, Mikami, and Misa from being able to use a Death Note ever again. And it will be rather glorious."

As L began to write their names in another section of the Grand Note, Light charged toward L, in a desperate attempt to stop this from happening.

However, Aizawa and Matsuda seized Light, stopping him from proceeding further.

When Light saw that L had finished writing, Light stopped physically struggling to break free, but maintained his wild stare.

"You're bluffing …," Light said.

"If you truly believed that, then you wouldn't have charged toward me," L said.

"Why didn't you write their names for this purpose before you got here, L?" Near asked.

"I wanted to be here up close and personal to see the look on Kira's face when I did," L said. "Especially since I protected everyone else in the room by writing your names down in the section of the notebook that I displayed earlier, I considered this to be not just permissible, but excellent."

"Agreed," Near said, with a smile.

"I see, by the way, that you've adopted my thinking position, Near," L said, while observing the crouched position in which Near was situated.

"It seems to work rather well, apparently," Near said.

"Indeed," L said, as he diverted his gaze back toward Light, whose wild stare had somewhat eased, although the ferocity within his soul was readily apparent in his eyes.

"What's the matter, Kira? Are you that upset that you won't be able to be a mass murder anymore?" L asked.

Light sneered, then averted his gaze.

He felt defeated, and rightfully so.

"You had so much potential," L said, as he began to walk toward Light, who looked at L again.

"What else are you going to do?" Light asked.

L stopped walking at a point about two meters from Light.

As Aizawa and Matsuda continued to restrain Light, L looked down into the Grand Note and found the proper section.

"You'll know what the third power of this notebook is as soon as you feel it," L said, as he began to write Light's name.

"What are you going to do, kill me?" Light asked. "Are you going to kill me now that I can't use a Death Note to kill anyone for the sake of justice anymore?"

"Unlike you, Kira, I'm not a cold-blooded murderer," L said, as he closed the notebook. "You should feel it in a matter of seconds."

10 seconds later, Light screamed.

He struggled to break free of Aizawa and Matsuda's restraints, and they let him go. He placed his hands on his head and closed his eyes; … it was so much, all at once.

"What Kira's now experiencing is the sum of all the final living memories of everyone he killed through using a Death Note," L said, as everyone else in the warehouse looked on with earnest. "And while this pain will fade in a few moments, for unlike some in this room, I am not a person who revels in cruelty, there will be a different, long-lasting effect."

Light stared briefly at L, and his breathing became more rapid.

"Why did you do this?" Light asked, as the pain began to fade, but the other effect of the notebook's third power began to intensify.

"So you could understand the truth," L said. "Now, Kira, you'll finally recognize the objective horror of what you put so many people through who did not deserve to die. It was not your place to purvey judgment upon them, and now your supposed rationality will finally be superseded by notions that are truly rational. You'll continue to know the horror of what you did, and you will now understand, at a fundamental level, that you let yourself become enveloped by evil, and how wrong what you did truly was."

Light was kneeling on the floor, not at L, but out of emotional pain.

L walked closer to Light, and was now only one meter away.

"For the rest of your life, Light, you'll remember all the lives you extinguished without justice, and you'll now recognize and be dismayed at the atrocities you took pleasure in committing," L said, as he then slightly turned to address Near. "Good work, by the way."

Near, who had been a bit startled by the sudden comment, responded.

"Oh yeah, of course ...," Near said, in a humble manner.

L turned his gaze back toward Light.

"So now you might wonder what the fourth power of this notebook is," L said. "It will become evident momentarily."

L paused and briefly looked at Light, not with a smile or a grin of victory, but with a somber expression that reflected his hope that better days for the world would soon be ahead.

"Well Light, I wish I could tell you that I'll eventually be seeing you, but unfortunately for you, that's not the case," L said.

Just as Light was about to speak, he saw L let go of the notebook, and suddenly, in the midst of the notebook falling to the floor, both L and the notebook disappeared.

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><p><em>Author's Notes: <em>

_I hope you enjoyed this alternate ending to the Death Note series, and please let me know what you thought about it! _

_In fun and fanfiction,_

_American Vigor_

_Entry completed: April 9, 2011. Revised: April 12, 2011._

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><p><em>A special thanks to Lygatto, who pointed out to me in a review of the original version of this entry that the Death Note rule in How to Use: LXVI, [Some limited number of Death Notes have white or red front covers, but they would make no difference in their effects, as compared with the black cover Death Notes], contradicted an assertion I had written that all Death Notes have dark covers. The revised version of this story has replaced this assertion with alternative language.<em>

_As I heavily value continuity and causality in my writing, this is an adjustment that I was very glad to make.  
><em>

_In fun and fanfiction,_

_American Vigor  
><em>


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